Alistair Hulett – arguably one of the more impressive socialist folk musicians of our time – died on Thursday evening, January 28, 2010 (approximately 5:30am on Friday morning, 29 January 2010, Sydney time), in Ward 26a of Southern General Hospital, Glasgow.
Alistair had been critically ill and in hospital since the New Year, but it was largely kept quiet from friends and fans alike as he waited for a liver transplant for what was mistakenly diagnosed to be liver failure.
It eventually became clear he was actually suffering from an aggressive metastic cancer that had already spread to his lungs and stomach. Unfortunately for Alistair, and all of us, he didn’t make it, dying only days after the cancer was discovered.
There is a delicious irony in the recent news - reported by Aporrea.org - that the Somali "pirates" have offered to donate a significant proportion of their booty to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Claiming to have connections all over the world, the Somalis promise to deliver the money undetected by Western "enemy" governments.
But why have they made this offer? The first connection that springs to mind is, perhaps, the piracy itself.
While the Somali youth based out of Eyl and other small towns in coastal Somalia are the modern face of seafaring piracy, Haiti is the traditional stomping ground of the swaggering buccaneers of legend (if we ignore, of course, the tame pets of the major capitalist powers such as Sir Francis Drake).
On January 19, German political police raided the Berlin and Dresden offices of several anti-Nazi groups, including the Dresden Nazi-Free Alliance, "No Pasaran", "Red Stuff", and the left-wing party Die Linke.
Thousands of posters, stickers and leaflets for an anti-Nazi protest on February 13 were confiscated, and a number of computers were seized.
The raids provoked immediate protest from the Die Linke, the Greens, the Social Democratic Party, the anti-globalisation group ATTAC and several trade unions.
The protest – organised by the Dresden Nazi-Free Alliance, a broad alliance of over 230 organisations and 800 high profile individuals – plans a peaceful blockade to prevent a fascist parade on February 13, the 65th anniversary of the WWII Allied fire-bombing of Dresden.
On
September 10 a British jury acquitted six Greenpeace protesters who
were on trial for trying to shut down a coal-fired power station on the
grounds that they were trying to stop global warming.
Last year, the protesters climbed the chimneystack of the Kingsnorth
power station, in Kent, to paint "Gordon, bin it" (as in, "bin coal") on
the side, but were arrested before they could complete the task. They
were charged with causing criminal damage equivalent to around $80,000 –
the costs cleaning the 200 metre stack.
However, in a majority verdict, the jury in Maidstone Crown Court
found that the protesters had a "lawful excuse" for their acts, because
they were trying to protect property that would be damaged by climate
change, including parts of Kent at risk from sea level rise, parts of
Greenland, the Pacific island of Tuvalu, coastal areas of Bangladesh and
the city of New Orleans.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, from the centre-right Christian Democratic
Union (CDU), was returned to power in the September 27 federal
elections. But the vote was marked by a record low voter turnout and a
significantly increased vote for the far-left party, Die Linke ("The
Left").
The election was a clear success for the CDU. Merkel's preferred
coalition partners - the free-market fundamentalist Free Democratic
Party (FDP) - increased its support by 4.8 points to an all-time high of
14.6%.
This was enough to form a CDU-FDP government.
The FDP will replace the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) as
coalition partners in the government of Europe's largest economy.
The SPD's support collapsed by more 6 million votes. It dropped a
huge 11.2% to only 23% – the SPD's worst result since World War II. An
SPD leader said on election night: "We have been bombed back into the
Weimar Republic."
However, although the result has been widely labelled a shift to the
right, the actual outcome doesn't bear this out. The total vote for the
centre-right parties rose by only 3.4%, while the vote for the far-right
neo-Nazi NPD dropped to just over 1%.
The vote for Die Linke was 11.9% - a 3.2% increase on the 2005 result
by the joint electoral ticket of two left-wing groups that was the
forerunner to Die Linke. Formed in 2007, Die Linke is Germany's newest
party and stands for pro-people, anti-corporate policies.
Die Linke is also the only party that opposed the occupation of Afghanistan and has committed to withdrawing all German troops.
On
September 30, violent clashes between indigenous protestors and police
in Ecuador left at least one protester dead, and nine protesters and 40
police injured, the October 1 Latin American Herald Tribune said.
The protests are the first big test for Ecuador's left-wing President
Rafael Correa, first elected in 2006 on the platform of a "citizen's
revolution" promising to build a "21st century socialism" in the small
Andean country.
The protests were called by the Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) — the umbrella confederation
representing Ecuador's indigenous population. About 35% of Ecuador's
population is indigenous.
On the same day, Ecuador's main teachers union, the UNE, and students also protested against proposed educational reforms.
CONAIE and many environmental organisations are opposed to a new
mining law they believe will cause environmental destruction and may
result in water privatisation.
They also believe the law violates Ecuador's new constitution, which,
among many other progressive additions, guarantees access to water and
grants specific rights to the environment.
Before the recent elections in the German states of Thuringia, Saarland and
Saxony it seemed likely that Christian Democrat (CDU) German Chancellor
Angela Merkel would return to power comfortably this year, probably in
coalition with the free-market fundamentalists of the Free Democratic
Party (FDP).
On August 30, however, German voters went to the polls in the three
states and for local elections in North Rhine Westphalia. The result —
an unmistakable swing to the left — has blown prospects for the
September 27 German federal elections wide open. Both big parties — the
centre-right CDU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) — received
heavy blows.
In national opinion polls, the SPD (a junior partner in a federal
"grand coalition" government with the CDU) has slumped to a historic low
of 22%. On August 30, its vote continued to decline. The SPD polled
only 10.4% in Saxony, and 18.5% in Thuringia.
However, the biggest loser was the ruling CDU. Its vote dropped by
more than 13 points in both Thuringia and Saarland — the worst results
since 1949. It will probably lose government in both states.
On
August 3, Ecuador celebrated a milestone when left-wing President
Rafael Correa was sworn in for a second term — the first president to
serve a second term since democracy was restored 30 years ago.
The same week, Ecuador celebrated 200 years since it first declared
independence from Spain - the first such declaration in Latin America -
and Correa assumed the rotating presidency of the new Union of South
American Nations, whose capital is in Quito.
Correa - a left-wing economist and former finance minister - was
elected in 2006, promising to overhaul Ecuadorian society through a
socialist "citizens' revolution" that would reduce poverty and
strengthen democratic institutions.
Once elected, he initiated a popular re-write of the constitution,
securing re-election in April this year on the platform of building
"21st century socialism", despite media opposition and the impact of the
financial crisis on Ecuador's weak economy.
The
frosty relations between Colombia and Ecuador got even frostier on July
6 when Colombian officials and lawyers accused members of Ecuador's
government of working for left-wing Colombian guerrillas.
The accusations arose after a video was released featuring
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commander Jorge Briceno
(who goes by the alias "Mono Jojoy") claiming the guerrillas gave
financial support to the 2006 election campaign of Ecuador's left-wing
President Rafael Correa.
Colombia's prosecutor-general, Mario Iguaran, claimed that a former
security minister in Correa's government, Gustavo Larrea, and former
Correa adviser Jose Chauvin were "emissaries" for the FARC.
Ecuadorian officials said the video is doctored. Correa called the
footage a "sham" and demanded the FARC clarify whether they had funded
his campaign in any way.
Correa has appointed a commission to investigate the claims and the
origin of the video, which he claimed was part of a right-wing campaign
"to destabilise the region's progressive governments".
Aporrea, Miércoles, 22/07/2009
El 1 de enero de 2009, la pequeña Isla de Cuba celebró el 50º
aniversario de una revolución que logró derrotar a la brutal dictadura que la
dominaba para comenzar a establecer en
su largo y a menudo complicado camino hacia el socialismo.
En todo el mundo, los medios de comunicación masiva han
combinado informes con distorsiones y mentiras sobre el tema de la democracia
enla isla, focalizando la revolución en el más claro de sus símbolos: su líder
histórico, Fidel Castro y el icónico ejército guerrillero que marchó a la
Habana en la primer semana de 1959, precisamente con Castro y el revolucionario
de origen argentino, Ernesto Che Guevara a la cabeza.
En el mejor de los casos, esta visión nos presenta sólo una
imagen parcial sobre la Revolución Cubana ya que pasa por alto los cientos de miles
de personas que en el movimiento urbano clandestino se opusieron al asesino
dictador apoyado por los Estados Unidos, Fulgencio Batisa quien fue derrocado
por la revolución en combates callejeros, movilizaciones obreras que pararon la
producción hasta llegar a la organización de huelgas generales como la
organizada el 2 de Enero de 1959, misma que finalmente puso al régimen de
rodillas.
El mismo punto de vista sobre Cuba también hace caso omiso
de la lucha de los trabajadores y otros sectores populares que, después de huir
Batista, transformó la lucha contra la dictadura en una revolución que derrocó
a una clase política cuya corrupción y régimen autocrático ponían en peligro
las aspiraciones del pueblo cubano por democracia y justicia social. Una Revolución
Socialista iniciaba a unos pasos de la mayor potencia capitalista de la tierra.
Alistair Hulett – arguably one of the more impressive socialist folk musicians of our time – died on Thursday evening, January 28, 2010 (approximately 5:30am on Friday morning, 29 January 2010, Sydney time), in Ward 26a of Southern General Hospital, Glasgow.
